Rayman and the Return of the Hoodlums
by jayz-28
Summary: Rayman's back, and so are the hoodlums. Influenced by a mysterious shadow figure, the hoodlums are out to get Rayman, Globox and Ly as they try to help their new found friend, Jazz. This story is an infusion of all the Rayman games. Please R&R.
1. Prologue

Prologue:

Even though the Glade of Dreams is home to thousands and thousands of creatures that continually search its vast and open lands, it has managed to keep many secrets from exposure. One of the deepest secrets is a concealed, mysterious island that keeps hold of an extraordinary power in its Centre Cave. This force of energy could do many wondrous things; it could give life, it could rebuild the destroyed, it could transform anything into a miraculous wonder, it could change the world for better; or even for worse. Only a few know where this incredible power is kept. Unfortunately, one of the people who did know of the island's secret was not one who would use it for the best.

His shadow stretched across the late afternoon shore of the island, and as the character walked, it was as if he were floating at a great speed. Not even the dense forest that surrounded the Centre Cave slowed him from his mission. The shadow figure had reached his destination and silently slipped into a crack at the side of the mountain.

Despite its name, the Centre Cave was more like a castle built into a mountain foot, so the figure cast a long, dark shadow down the intertwining halls, until he came to an open room, completely filled with a glowing azure light. The source of the illumination was a large crystal centred in the circular room, shining different shades of blue. He steadily moved forward; almost close enough to touch it, until another figure entered the room.

'What are you doing here?!' The question was asked by a little old teensie, hunched over its jewel-topped cane. 'Get out! NOW! Or pay the consequences.' The shadow figure simply laughed, but the teensie stood strong.

'As if an insignificant weakling like you could stop me!' the figure teased as he reached for the crystal, about to rip it out of the ground and continue his assignment. The teensie held up his cane, the jewel facing the figure. The shadow figure was about to burst into even more laughter until he realised that the jewel was no ordinary jewel, it was a large piece of the blue crystal, welded to the top of the cane.

'Arggh!!' the figure growled and quickly broke off his own piece of crystal for his attack, but the teensie was too quick, and blasted him with a ray of blue energy. The figure held onto the crystal embedded into the ground, but it was no use.

The energy of the teensie's weapon was too strong and sent him tumbling backwards until the figure was out of sight.

'I would leave now if I were you,' the old teensie taunted, yet instructed sternly. The figure sat up and thought about going back in. No, he couldn't. Not while the teensie had the upper hand, so he made his way out of the cave.

He looked at the small piece of crystal he had grabbed earlier.

'I guess it's Plan B, then.' The figure pulled out a ray gun from his darkened clothes, and slipped the small piece of crystal into a little opening on the side of the weapon. He ventured forth, determined not to fail his mission.

'Next stop, the Glade of Dreams,' he snickered to himself.

--

Dusk was setting and night was closing in on the swirled colours of reds, pinks and oranges. The red lum's intense glow grew as the darkness crept ever closer. Night was falling so quickly; it didn't notice the shadow that rose up from behind it.

'Hello,' the shadow said darkly. The lum suddenly started to shake, hoping it wasn't who it thought it was. But it was. It was the same figure that had tried to steal the power from the mysterious island before; but the lum didn't know that. It knew the shadowy figure for a whole other reason.

A white, shiny -but devastatingly evil- grin spread across figure's face. The lum's poor heart began to race, its mind possessed by all the possible torturous things the shadow figure could do to it, its fear increasing. It started to morph. Its beautiful red glow slowly became black and fuzzy, its front began to twitch as a dreadful face appeared and two long arms sprouted from its sides.

'Nice to have you back, André,' the figure greeted through his gleaming teeth.

'Nice to be back,' André smirked, 'What can I do for you?'

'I need a little business taken care of,' the shadow figure said in the most intelligent tone, 'Are you up to it? I warn you now; it's for revenge's sake.'

'Let me guess who the victim is; a big nosed, blonde haired freak who continually interrupts our scheming?'

'Exactly,' the figure grinned his worst and most evil grin yet.

'Gladly. Let me round up the troupes.' And away André went, in search of other red lums to scare into morphing, like the figure had done to him.

He returned with his army to where the dark character was waiting patiently, his posture posed in such a way that it was like he was overlooking an evil empire of soldiers under his command.

'Very good,' his eyes glistened. 'Now, André. Take your group and train them hard. We don't want to entertain our target by letting him think he can stop us. I want this to be as gloriously painful as possible for Rayman. I want him humiliated and injured, but _not_ destroyed completely, not until I get to him anyway. Make sure that once you capture him; bring him back to me; ALIVE!' The figure was very intent on finishing the job himself; or was it for him?

'Fine,' André said sourly. 'As long as we get to do _some_ damage to him. Do we start training across from the kneerans territory?'

'NO!' the figure lashed out furiously. 'That was where you were coached before, you imbecile!' The character forced himself to calm down, not wanting to lose his ally. 'No, no. I don't even want you to prepare in this world. Find one that's completely different, one by pure random selection. I do NOT want Rayman to foil me... I mean, _us_, AGAIN!!'

Everything fell silent in the cold new evening.

'WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? GO AND TRAIN!!!' the figure yelled so hard that no-one dared to disobey, and ran off in a trail of dust and dirt. The figure stopped André. 'Take this with you,' he said and handed the black lum the small ray gun. 'This will help you train. It will make any living thing morph into the shape you need it to be.' The shadow character winked and André smiled wickedly in response before running after the others.

The troupes followed a light path towards the teensie's Stone Circle, just passing by Globox's house. All the fuss and speed woke up one very curious baby glute, who was ready for an adventure. Confused and curious, the small glute noiselessly ran after the hoodlums, just like his hero Rayman would. To the young glute, it seemed like the troupes would never stop running, but he was determined to chase them down.

Finally, they came to a halt, and the glute hid behind a small leafy fern. André stopped to think about where they should go. Hmmm, the Bayou, the East Plain, the Marshes of Awakening? No, all were too noticeable and too open to train in. Then the figures words rang in his head.

'Pure, random selection,' André repeated to himself.

Out of nowhere, he started dancing around in a circle. His hoodlums were bewildered, and some even began to snicker as it's funny to watch someone without any feet dance. But it soon became clear what he was doing when a strange swirling vortex appeared out of thin air.

'Oh,' everyone sighed, and one after the other, they began to jump in. André was the last hoodlum to enter, and then the portal started to close up.

Now was the glute's chance to come out from hiding. He sprinted as fast as his legless feet would carry him, and then dived into the whirling gateway just as it sealed. The travel was over in a flash, but the glute could vaguely remember music and long beams of light. But there was no time to reminisce about his journey.

He saw the hoodlums over in the distance, next to a rather large ragged building. The hoodlums, had in fact, stumbled into an abandoned clothes factory. They were mainly confused as to where they were, but glad to have such a useful lair. André turned to his troupe, 'Brothers, we have found a source of clothing and weapons!' They dashed into the building, ripping off the boards nailed to the doors and windows. Meanwhile, the glute had been listening and watching. 'Weapons?' he thought to himself, 'I forgot about the weapons.'

He slowly crept up to a window with a crack just big enough to see through. He peered through the slit and his face lit in fear as he witnessed the some of the hoodlums rummaging through the old clothes to form misshaped bodies for themselves, while others set up practice targets in the shapes of Rayman and Globox, and one huge hoodlum shot at the dummies. He might as well have shot the glute's courage to continue his plan of stopping the hoodlums.

Now aware of the real danger that surrounded him, the baby glute scampered off into the small forest park near the factory. Alone and unsure of where he was, he sobbed as he waited for some form of help, ANYTHING that could take him to the home he loved so dearly.


	2. Chapter One You're Not Alone

Chapter One – You're Not Alone:

She was walking slowly, temped to go back. Her satchel swung as she kicked up her legs a bit. With each step her face got more and more miserable. She could have burst into tears without looking ridiculous, because no-one was around. But she didn't, not wanting to damage her dignity any more than it already was. The cold midnight wind sent her short golden hair wild, revealing her deep blue eyes.

She hadn't looked up at all until she heard a small squeak. It sounded almost like a little mouse crying. She looked around her, but all she saw was a run-down building and a small lake surrounded by bushes. It wasn't until she looked straight ahead that she noticed a frog on the path.

'Aw, the poor things out of its pond,' she thought, glad something could distract her from her previous state of mind. 'Better go put it back.'

As she walked towards it, something suddenly occurred to her. 'It's a bit strange for a frog to squeak, isn't it?' Then she saw as she got closer and closer, that it wasn't a frog at all; well, not really. It was larger, and stood on its hind legs, no, its hind feet; because it had no legs. It just floated above the detached feet. But she could tell that it could still use them, because it was dawdling with them, drawing invisible scribbles on the path it was standing on. And had stick skinny arms compared to the rest of its stout body.

'Oh well, an animal's an animal. Even if it is slightly… odd, I should still help it,' she convinced herself. She leaned forward a bit to check if it had sharp teeth. But all it did was look up at her with sad, all- knowing eyes.

'What's wrong?' she said, not actually expecting an answer as she reached for it.

'I'm lost,' the little frog replied. She pulled back, not knowing whether to stay calm or run for the hills screaming.

'You can talk?'

'Of course I can.' She paused, still thinking about screaming her head off.

'What are you?' she asked, not trying to sound _too_ horrified.

'I'm a glute,' the glute said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

'Okay, making progress,' she continued. 'Where do you come from, 'cause I don't think you're from around here.'

'I come from the Glade of Dreams, where my mummy and daddy and brothers and sisters are.' The glute was almost going to cry at the mention of his family.

'Um, where, precisely, is that?' the girl queried.

It paused, 'I don't know.' The tears were welling up in its eyes.

'Well, let's see if we can find this "Glade of Dreams",' she said as she gestured for it to come closer.

Just as she was about to pick it up, the ground snapped up around the glute, sending the poor girl backwards. A little dazed and confused, she sat up and tried to focus her vision. Before she could see anything properly, she heard small squeals coming from the glute. Then her blurred sight showed that the glute was enclosed in a cage.

'How did that happen?'

'I don't know, just get me out of here!' the glute squealed at her.

'Okay, okay, don't panic,' she said, more trying to calm herself than the glute in the cage. She searched all over the cage for a door, a lock, anything! But there was nothing, just bars welded into two planks of wood.

'Stay right here while I find something to pry open the cage with.'

'WHERE AM I GOING TO GO?!' the glute pointed out.

'Sorry,' the girl winced at her stupidity. She swerved around, starting her search for a long piece of something to open the cage with; when she notice two shadows began to form along the abandoned factory she was standing in front of.

Without even thinking twice, she jumped into the bushes behind her. 'Um, what about the frog?' reminded a little voice inside her head. Her tanned skin went a pale white as she stared at the cage. She would have gone to pick it up and take it back into safe hiding with her, but it was too late. The shadowy figures were already standing next to the captive glute, inspecting what they had caught.

She could see their appearance better now that they were almost under the street light. They were tall creatures, with clothes made from scrap material, and under their huge, brimmed hats were two gleaming red eyes above a stitched-up mouth. Just them standing there, not doing anything at all, sent shivers down her spine.

They both picked up either side of the cage and looked at each other with wicked smirks spread across their faces as they walked inside the old building. All the girl could do was stay stunned for a while, trying to comprehend what just happened. She had witnessed so many new things in a matter of fifteen minutes.

Legless, talking frogs, booby-trapped pathways and the cold shiver the red eyes of those creatures sent down her back; all of these events could send her mad with fear, if she let it. But she remembered the conversation she had with the baby glute, the sadness in its eyes because of being so far away from home and family. The girl could relate; it wasn't easy.

With a heavy sigh and a pit forming in her stomach, she decided to go inside the factory the eerie creatures went into, and rescue her new friend.

She peered out from the bushes to see if there were any more of those weirdly clothed things. No, nobody around. Quickly, she darted to the side of the building and pressed her back up against the wall. She checked around the corner to see if the entrance door was guarded. Surprisingly, it wasn't. 'That's odd,' she thought, 'but then I guess a lot of things have been odd tonight.'

She crept to the side of the door, glancing through it. There was one of those creatures inside the hallway, but it was slouched in the corner sleeping. The girl's heart belted a hundred times faster than normal.

'Okay, you can do this. All you have to do is tip-toe past that big, ugly, armed... whatever it is, and hope there aren't any more around the corner.' Her heart actually stopped then. 'Oh crap, I forgot that there was more than one.' Her legs started to wobble; she couldn't step forward; until she remembered her goal. The baby glute.

Her courage grew, and she stealthily slid by the sleeping guard, and around the corner, then down the hall and into the shadows of a janitor's closet; all without even thinking about what she was doing.

'This is crazy, you'll never be able to find that frog in a factory like this,' her conscience told her. As if her thoughts were read, the glute's small squeak could be heard down the hall. She followed the noise until it became as clear as a bell. It was coming from behind a door labelled 'Manager's Room'.

She slowly opened the door, the metal knob freezing her hand. Her eyes closed for a second, not wanting to know if it wasn't the glute in this room, but one of the creatures.

'You came for me!' was the answer to her question. Her eyes flickered open to see the glute in the same cage on top of a chestnut desk, but more importantly, unguarded and unharmed.

'Of course I came for you. I said I'd find the Glade of Dreams for you and I will.' The little glute's face lit up in hearing he was going to be home soon.

'I just have to get you out of that cage,' the girl said as she walked over to the desk.

It was covered in paper documents and folders, and on the edge it had a little panel with different coloured buttons on it.

'Okay, let's see what we can do about this cage.' She started to lift it up, but realised it was much heavier than it looked. She toppled forward and the cage landed back on the desk, hitting the buttons on the panel.

Loud beeping noises came from the speakers, forcing the girl and the glute to cover their ears.

'OH NO! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!' the girl cried, but the creatures were quick in finding were the source of the sound was coming from.

There, in the doorway, stood three large creatures, two armed with guns. They began to shoot at her, but the girl was faster and dodged them as the orbs flew past her. She went up to the smallest creature and gave him a sharp and incredibly hard punch to the face, sending him down to the ground. She caught the gun as it was thrown up into the air by the fallen one. The other creature who had a gun shot at her, but she twirled the gun, reflecting the orb and making it rebound back into the one who had fired it.

The last opponent grinned sheepishly at her and kneeled in mercy. She simply grinned back and said, 'Sorry,' before hitting it in the face with the end of the gun she was holding.

It fell to the ground with a huge THUD! The glute started cheering and the girl turned around and gave a bow to her audience.

'There, that was easier than I thought it would be.'

Her friend started to giggle but stopped abruptly.

'LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!' it cried, and the girl twisted around to be greeted by another creature.

Little did she know that this particular creature was named André. And he had a special weapon.

The girl was about to shoot at him, but he already had fired a small ray gun that was in his hand. The blue ray of light hit the girl, paralysing her. She couldn't move because of the excruciating pain she was in.

It felt like her arms, legs and neck were collapsing in on themselves, like they were fading away. She could feel her body shape changing, becoming smaller and lighter. A lot of the pain was coming from her face. It was as if the area around her nose was stretching outwards, and her eyes coming closer together. And a surge of energy rushed through her veins, which was probably the most painful experience of all.

The girl fell once it was over, totally exhausted by what had happened. Just before she slipped into unconsciousness, she could just hear the creature murmur,

'It looks like we've got a live target.'

--

Everything was cruel and unfair for the girl and the glute, but everything was fine and perfectly normal for Rayman and his friends back in the Glade of Dreams.

The teensies were a little concerned, though. During the night, someone had opened a portal without permission. So a meeting was held for the discussion of the topic.

Of course, some teensies were there, fighting over who was king and snatching the crown off each other, a couple of fairies were there, and so was Murphy, who was staring at the fairies giggle and talk, almost going to go over to the one with pink hair and light purple eyes to ask if she was available for dinner.

Ly was present, too, and she was taking the whole thing very seriously. It was not usually good when a portal opened mysteriously. The only one not in attendance, who could actually help with the situation, was Rayman.

Everyone was at the Stone Circle, sitting around a circular table that fit into the ring of stones just neatly.

'Order, order!' the current teensie king yelled. 'Let's get this meeting started. It has come to the attention of us teensies, that an unauthorised portal was opened and used.'

The teensie standing next to the teensie king took the crown off his head and put it on his own.

'Yes, there's no need for panic, but it would be wise to check it out.'

'But how can we check it out?' Ly questioned, 'The portal would have closed by now.'

Another teensie came up behind the teensie king and slapped it off his crown and then flipped it up onto his head.

'Some of the portal dust remains; we can re-open it and see where it leads to. And I have just the guy who can check it out. RAYMAN!' the teensie king yelled and pointed behind him.

There was nothing there but an old oak tree. The king cleared his voice.

'I said, "RAYMAN!"' and he pointed behind him again. Nothing still happened.

The teensie king went to examine the tree.

'Oh, come on! It was supposed to be a dramatic entrance and you have to go and fall asleep! Figures.' Sure enough there was Rayman's large nose poking out from behind the tree, rising and falling with each breath he took.

'Five more minutes,' Rayman said in a daze, and then fell back into a deep sleep. 'Argh!' the teensie sighed in anguish as he slapped his hand to his forehead.

'Don't worry. I'll tell him about his mission after I wake him up,' Ly said in her calm, smooth voice.

'How are _you_ going to wake up the one guy who can sleep for days on end without even a cyclone being able to disturb him?' the teensie king accused.

'I have my ways.' And with that, Ly picked up Rayman and carried him away from the meeting, leaving everyone confused.

She went down to the beach just below the East Plain.

'Sorry, Rayman, but you have to wake up.' Then she let go of the little bundle in her arms that was Rayman and he splashed into the shallow water below. 'AAAAAHHHHHH!!!' was all that he could exclaim.

'Well, you shouldn't sleep through a meeting that you're supposed to be a part of,' she laughed smugly.

Rayman, truly awake now, sat in the water glaring up at the gleaming fairy.

'That's it!' he yelled playfully. 'You're gonna get it now!' and he splashed a whole heap of water at the surprised fairy. She squealed at the water before it soaked her entirely. 'You're dead!' she squealed light-heartedly, and began to chase the limbless.

They were running, drenching each other and laughing. Unexpectedly, the water claimed Rayman's feet, and yanked them off, making him spiral forward and land with a huge KASPLASH! into the water.

Ly tried to contain her amusement by covering her mouth and holding her stomach, but it didn't work in the slightest. Wallows of laughter flowed from her mouth rhythmically, making Rayman's heart-strings jump.

Ever since he could remember, he had a bit of a crush for Ly. The way she smiled, her deep forest-green eyes, how she showed all the compassion of the world, every detail of her was noticed and adored by him. Even though he looked completely different to her, he knew it didn't matter. But sometimes he longed to have another limbless around.

Her laughter slowed, and she picked up his feet and handed them to him.

'Come on, you've got another mission. You'd better start pretty much straight away; it sounds like it could be serious.' Ly's cautiousness may have exaggerated the importance of the mission.

'Okay, okay. Sheez, I defeat Mr. Dark, I stop the pirates from over taking the world, I get rid of the hoodlums and I prevent the rabbids from getting to close to us. You'd think that would be enough, but no. I have to go and check out everything that might pose a threat, watch over every little thing, attend every boring meeting,' Rayman complained.

'Oh, stop your winging. What do you expect? Everyone looks up to you for saving us on numerous occasions. Of course we want the best to protect us,' Ly said, making sure that _the best_ was emphasised. Apparently it was, because a look of pride washed over his face as he stood up on his reattached feet.

'Well, I guess if you want the _best_, you can't go one better than me.' Ly just rolled her eyes and pushed Rayman back into the water.

'Come on, stop fooling around,' she said as she ran back up the hill.

Rayman chuckled as he dashed after her. He meant to catch up to her, but she was too quick. By the time she stopped, they were back at the Stone Circle.

'About time!' the teensie king said in a huff.

'Sorry, it takes a little while for me to wake up,' Rayman lied, hoping they didn't see the two of them playing in the water.

'Okay, then. I hope Ly told you about the mission. Here's a recap. This portal was opened without authorisation, and we've managed to get it back open,' the teensie explained, gesturing to the open portal, 'and we need you to check it out. You know, someone might have got lost in there.'

'Okay, so that's all you want me to do? Check out what world it is and if anyone from our world is in there?'

'That's pretty much it.'

'Okay, I'll be back shortly.' Rayman waved a good-bye just before doing a flip into the portal.

He enjoyed being in portals; the music, the kaleidoscope colours, the beams of light he had to balance on with a board, crossing over from one beam to the other before reaching the world ahead. It was over all too soon for him when he landed in the out-skirting shrubs of a forest opposite a run-down building.

'Hello?' he called out in the dark, but his words seemed to dissolve into the black night. 'Anyone from the Fairy Glade in need of some help? Hello?!' No-one answered.

'I really want to go back to Ly, but what if there's someone out a bit further?' he thought to himself. He huffed a large sigh and went to see if anyone was hiding in the abandoned building over in the distance.

A soft quiet noise hummed from the factory, and it got louder the closer he got. Once he was a couple of feet away from the building, it was clear that the noise was cheering and laughing and squabbling. Out of pure curiosity, he peeped through a slit in a window to see what all the fuss was about.

'Hoodlums,' Rayman gasped quietly. A whole crowd of hoodlums were preparing their weapons and gathering around something. Rayman squinted a bit harder to see what it was.

'OH NO!' he said a bit too loudly, but it didn't catch anybody's attention.

The hoodlums moved a distance away from what they were crowding around and aimed their guns. It was perfectly clear to see the targets now. One was a baby glute in a cage, one of Globox's children. And the other was not as easy to see what it was, because its hair covered its hanging face, but it was obvious that it was forced to stand up as it was tied to a pole.

A single hoodlum stood to the side and called attention.

'Andy,' Rayman whispered grimly, and began finding a way to get inside. Andy looked like the other hoodlums, dressed in scraggly clothing, but he was much bigger, a symbol of the leader of the pack.

'Brothers! I give you your first live targets! For starters, we'll keep them tied up, and then once your aim has improved, we'll let them run free in this room, and practice shooting at a moving target.' Everyone laughed maniacally.

'On the count of three, begin your shooting. One...'

The glute began to whimper.

'...Two...'

The tied up character's head hung even lower.

'...Thr...'

'NOT SO FAST!!' Rayman burst through the doors, the light shining in, making his body look like just a silhouette.

'AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! RAYMAN! HOW DID YOU... Agh. Never mind. GET HIM!!' ordered Andy, and his minions followed his command.

They swarmed around Rayman, preparing to fire, but he simply wound up his fist and threw it at a hoodlum standing in front of another two. The first hoodlum fell backwards onto the other two and knocked them out of their clothing.

Rayman started throwing energy orbs at the others, a trick Ly taught him, knocking them out of their clothing, too. One hoodlum armed with a gun remained. He fired, and hit Rayman's hands off.

Instead of reattaching them, he simply controlled them to go forward to the hoodlum. One hand yanked the gun out of the hoodlum's possession, while the other stripped its clothing off. The hands zoomed back to Rayman and connected back to his arms, or where they would have been.

With one final action, Rayman planted his foot behind him, pulled his cheeks and stuck out his tongue at the black lums. Each one of them slowly lost their arms and faces and began to glow red again. They had transformed back into red lums.

Although he had defeated the army, he felt like he was forgetting something. Something important. Like, turning Andy back into a red lum, too.

'See ya later, Rayman. AH HA HA HA HA!' Andy mocked as he opened up another portal. Rayman raced as quickly as he could to get to the portal in time. But it was useless; it had already closed with Andy escaping inside it.

'DAMN IT! NOT AGAIN! Agh, it was hard enough last time to get rid of these mongrels.' He slowly turned around; listening to the peace and serenity that now filled the air. It made him feel sleepy.

Then he saw the glute and the tied up figure. Forgetting his tiredness, he ran across to the cage. He pulled at the bars and then one of them snapped, making a hole just big enough for the glute to pass through.

'Thank-you, thank-you! I can't believe you found me!' the glute said in total astonishment.

'You're welcome. I didn't even know you were gone.'

'Well, I do have over six hundred and fifty other brothers and sisters who look identical to me,' the glute reminded.

Rayman chuckled quietly, holding the glute in his nervous hands. Nervous, because it had just hit him how important this mission really was. One of Globox's kids would have been lost forever if he didn't check out this place.

His eyes were suddenly averted to the character tied to the pole.

'Who's that?' he asked the glute with a slight frown on his face, more a puzzled look than anything.

'That's the girl who tried to rescue me. She was doing really well, too; until Andy changed her.'

The frown on his forehead increased. 'Changed her, how?'

'Untie her, and you'll see,' the glute whispered glumly. Rayman gently put the glute down, and started to walk up to the figure.

She was tied around the waist to the pole. The knots were tight, but he managed to untangle them. The girl fell forward, still in a state of unconsciousness, but Rayman's reflexes were good and he caught her before she could hardly fall at all. And that's when he realised what the glute meant by 'Andy changed her'.

He held her head in his hand; his mouth fell wide open in amazement. Rayman lightly traced down her face, around her big nose and then stopped when he reached where her neck should have been. He stared at the hands that hung by her side, hands that weren't attached to arms. Her dainty feet; well dainty compared to his, drooped down from her body, as if they were only connected to her with the thinnest string in the universe. Even her clothes were the same, a purple hooded shirt with a circle in the middle. Her golden hair reflected his own hair colour, only hers was longer and wavier.

The only differences were that she had ballet flats on instead of sneakers, a satchel hung across her body and she was chestier than he was; after all, she was a girl.

It shocked him that it was true, but he had to say it out loud to convince himself that it _was_ true. 'Another me, another limbless. I'm not alone.'


End file.
